54 Mbps

mountainyman

I am using a dial up modem but my computer has wireless. When I refresh the wireless network list I see a security protected network that has a speed property of 54 mbps.

It is called 'eircom 1135 0264'.

It is protected and I can see it but not use it.

Can I get 'eircom 1135 0264 ' legally and by paiyng for it; if so will I have 54 mbps.
Does this mean 54 megabytes per second?

If not. I live in Terenure, how would you reccomend I get broadband quickly?

Many Thanks

MM

Gandhi

You are probably seeing your neighbour's wireless router. If you did manage to log on to his network (which is probably illegal), the 54 Mbps would be the connection between your computer's wireless card and his router. Your effective internet surfing speed would still be constrained by whatever connection (broadband, dialup etc) that he has.

The good news is, if your neighbour has a wireless router, then he almost certainly has broadband, which means it is available in your area. Someone on this board living near Terenure would be able to fill you in on your broadband options better than I could.

vibe666

people have been heavily fined for hijacking a wireless signal. it'sis most certainly illegal, so don't do it unless you want a knock at your door.

CuLT

vibe666 wrote:

people have been heavily fined for hijacking a wireless signal. it'sis most certainly illegal, so don't do it unless you want a knock at your door.

Only in one case, and only in the UK iirc.

Though my information may be a few months out of date.

Sparky

mountainyman wrote:

I am using a dial up modem but my computer has wireless. When I refresh the wireless network list I see a security protected network that has a speed property of 54 mbps.

It is called 'eircom 1135 0264'.

It is protected and I can see it but not use it.

Can I get 'eircom 1135 0264 ' legally and by paiyng for it; if so will I have 54 mbps.
Does this mean 54 megabytes per second?

If not. I live in Terenure, how would you reccomend I get broadband quickly?

Many Thanks

MM

hey i get that exact ssid on my laptop too, but with 1 bar, and i live in terenure

Sparky

Gandhi wrote:

The good news is, if your neighbour has a wireless router, then he almost certainly has broadband, which means it is available in your area. Someone on this board living near Terenure would be able to fill you in on your broadband options better than I could.

BT
Eircom
Digiweb Metro

Im not sure about:

IBB, although ripwave has a decent speed sometimes in my area
clearwire

vibe666

I have 3 or 4 eircom ssids within range of my 802.11b laptop from a ground floor apartment near merrion sq. they're all using WEP, but there's one there (non-eircom as far as i can tell, just a standard numerical ssid) that is wide open. I've even accidentally picked it up and surfed on it unknowingly once or twice when my own router denied access for one reason or another, and the laptop went wifi wandering. it's been wide open for at least a year too.

I did try and browse for machines on it, to try and find out who it was to tell them, but other than net access, there's no connection to anything else so it was impossible.

I'm sure someone with a few hacking tools could change that though.

but as i said, it's not big or clever to hijack another wifi signal, and you can get in trouble anywhere for doing it, even if siad network is wide open.
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crawler

Wireless router :-

802.11a or 802.11g both 54Mbps ( operate on different frequencies usually)

802.11b - 11Mbps

802.11n - vapourware but in theory up to 600Mbps

Range on all only a few hundred feet so it's a local access technology really and operate on unlicensed spectrum. Fine for home / office networking.

WizZard

To clarify.
It is not illegal to use an unsecured wireless network. The guy who got fined in the UK broke the WEP key and used a secured wireless network.
He was charged for breaking and entering, or the electronic equivalent.

Using a neighbours wireless network, if unsecured, may not be ethical - but it's not illegal - yet.

RuggieBear

vibe666 wrote:

I have 3 or 4 eircom ssids within range of my 802.11b laptop from a ground floor apartment near merrion sq. they're all using WEP, but there's one there (non-eircom as far as i can tell, just a standard numerical ssid) that is wide open.

I live just round the corner on the grand canal. Do you ever pick up "Earlfort"? I presum it's an office connection but you never know...

Jumpy

WizZard wrote:

To clarify.
It is not illegal to use an unsecured wireless network. The guy who got fined in the UK broke the WEP key and used a secured wireless network.
He was charged for breaking and entering, or the electronic equivalent.

Using a neighbours wireless network, if unsecured, may not be ethical - but it's not illegal - yet.

They should have printed on the outside of the box "Warning if you do not learn how to secure this you may be exposing your connection to anyone"

Wireless is a great idea but there are so few people who actually secure theirs.
Was in a training course in Limerick the other day and my laptop picked up no fewer than 4 unsecured (business!) wireless routers.

WizZard

Yes, wireless in proliferating quickly in the business world - it's very easy to set up and less expensive than laying cabling. However, a lot of people who set up these wireless networks do not understand the security risk they represent - even if they are encrypted. It's trivial to break into even WPA protected networks (802.11x is the most secure IIRC).
Ah it will all come to a head soon enough - I'm sure a big courtcase will force a mandate to be passed concerning computer/network security in business, just like in the US.

vibe666

nope, just a bunch of numerical eircom ssid's and the one i mentioned an one that someone has renamed 'oliveralesi' or something or other.

the only open one is the one i mentioned above.

get the feeling it might be a corporate network as I can't see anything else at all on it. probably set up to allow office workers wifi with no fuss. if it was a private one, i think i'd probably be able to see other unsecured machines on the LAN there. maybe not though, I don't know for sure either way.

WizZard wrote:

To clarify.
It is not illegal to use an unsecured wireless network. The guy who got fined in the UK broke the WEP key and used a secured wireless network.
He was charged for breaking and entering, or the electronic equivalent.

Using a neighbours wireless network, if unsecured, may not be ethical - but it's not illegal - yet.

i'm sure if someone wanted to sue someone else for it, then there'd have to be some sort of law that could be used to do so.

where's Cap'n Midnight when you need him.
[align=right]13.16.137.10[/align]

mountainyman

so does that mean that if I get Eircom it will be really fast?

Can I set it up myself?

In some govt. depts wireless is forbidden because any encryption can be cracked in a month. Is that true?

vibe666

mountainyman wrote:

so does that mean that if I get Eircom it will be really fast?

it'll be very much faster than what you are currently getting.

curerently you're probably connecting to the net between 40-50kbps with your dial up connection. the basic package will connect you to the internet at about 20 times that speed. web pages will load much faster, email will come in much quicker, your windows and other software updates will be much quicker, and you won't have to worry about being online for too long, as it's not measured in minutes, but rather how much you download, although the allowance will be mroe than nough for you (at least initially). there's also an option that is twice as fast at the basic one, athough you would be unlikely to take advantage of the extra speed until you find new things to do with the internet that aren't possible with a dial up connection.

mountainyman wrote:

Can I set it up myself?

yes, without too much trouble, but you might want to have a technical friend on hand in case of problems. you don't really need to have an engineer come out and install it, although they will if you ask. this can be an expensive option though. only consider it if you don't think you have any other choice.

mountainyman wrote:

In some govt. depts wireless is forbidden because any encryption can be cracked in a month. Is that true?

that's an urban legend. almost all wireless security can br broken much quicker than that these days.

WEP was the main form of wifi encryption until recently, but was replaced by WPA which as it turns out due to an unforseen vulnerability is actually easier to crack than WEP.

there are other ways of securing your network though, all of which are good at keeping people out (some better than others). the best defence is a layered approach, with several differnet types of protection.
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WizZard

mountainyman wrote:

In some govt. depts wireless is forbidden because any encryption can be cracked in a month. Is that true?

No, WEP takes around 3 minutes, sometimes less, and WPA is slightly longer, depending on the flavour used.

kaizersoze

WizZard wrote:

No, WEP takes around 3 minutes, sometimes less, and WPA is slightly longer, depending on the flavour used.

So, what would be the best way to secure?
I have encryption turned off because I connect alot of different machines to the network at different times and it's a pita. But I have the router password protected (not the default one) and connection limited to specific mac addresses. Is that enough?

irlrobins

someone could clone the mac address and be able to connect. It will prevent the average joe soap but not someone wanting to get on and knows what to do.

bk

WizZard wrote:

No, WEP takes around 3 minutes, sometimes less, and WPA is slightly longer, depending on the flavour used.

With WPA, as long as you use a good and long pass key, it is almost impossible to break.

kaizersoze wrote:

So, what would be the best way to secure?
I have encryption turned off because I connect alot of different machines to the network at different times and it's a pita. But I have the router password protected (not the default one) and connection limited to specific mac addresses. Is that enough?

WPA with a good long Pass Key. In corporate environments they also often use VPN for extra security.

With you current setup, anyone with even a little bit of skill (i.e. can read) could surf the web using your BB. Also they could packet sniff your internet traffic to get credit card details, usernames, etc.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

A little bit off topic. But I've also found a wireless network completely unprotected. It looks like an Eircom wireless router, as its SSID is similar to the above xxxx xxxx.

Should I even bother to try and warn the person? Is there much point ? And is there any way I can even identify the person?

Thanks
ambrose :cool:

secret_squirrel

mountainyman wrote:

so does that mean that if I get Eircom it will be really fast?

Can I set it up myself?

As another poster mentioned you are confusing the speed of the wireless router (54mps) with the speed of the broadband connection (512kps to 2Mbs+)the other side of it. Several companies have residential broadband faster than Eircoms.

However even the most basic broadband package (512kps) will be roughly 10 times faster than your dialup. 1Mbs = 1024Kps. Its worth noting that all of these speeds are theoretical and are never achieved in Real Life

I would advise finding a techie mate to help you set it up.

vibe666

bk wrote:

With WPA, as long as you use a good and long pass key, it is almost impossible to break.

that's the important bit there.

with a crappy passkey based ona dictionary or short word WPA can now be cracked with as little as 4 packets of data according to an article i read that described the process in great detail. a bit of googling should return the same results for anyone interested.

picking a good strong passkey consisting of at least 20 (pref. 40) characters or more, preferably non-dictionary based using letters numbers and symbols is your best bet for decent security.

Mac daddy

vibe666 wrote:

that's the important bit there.

with a crappy passkey based ona dictionary or short word WPA can now be cracked with as little as 4 packets of data according to an article i read that described the process in great detail.

Info on it,
kismac say no more.
http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=369221&seqNum=3

vibe666

hey, now all those malicsious mac users out there will know how to hack into our networks.

they're evil you know.

CuLT

For general purposes even WEP is fine.

Depending on where your network is set up the likelyhood of finding anyone who actually be bothered to "hack" your own personal computer in your immediate neighbourhood is low.

Businesses are a different matter, there might actually be something to gain from it.

Cake Fiend

vibe666 wrote:

people have been heavily fined for hijacking a wireless signal

In Ireland? Wouldn't mind some proof of that if you have it.

kingambrose wrote:

Should I even bother to try and warn the person? Is there much point ?

I wouldn't bother - it's not your problem that this person hasn't taken the most basic precautions to protect their network. Also, people with this lack of knowledge can have an unfortunate tendancy to shoot the messenger, so you might end up having some idiot haxorphobe accusing you of trying to hack their network!

bk

Sico wrote:

I wouldn't bother - it's not your problem that this person hasn't taken the most basic precautions to protect their network. Also, people with this lack of knowledge can have an unfortunate tendancy to shoot the messenger, so you might end up having some idiot haxorphobe accusing you of trying to hack their network!

Also it is worth mentioning that many people purposefully leave their wireless open so that other people can use it, a sort of community spirit sort of thing.

vibe666

Sico wrote:

In Ireland? Wouldn't mind some proof of that if you have it.

it's been in the news in the UK and in europe, so I'm sure what goes there could be applied here if someone could be bothered.

RuggieBear

ah that "earlfort" network is the office nextdoor.

WizZard

But it's not for using an open network, only a closed/protected one. eg. non-encrypted wifi signal with a proxy with username/password of guest/guest - easy to guess but you've still broken into the network. Because of windows easy-to-use feature of connecting automatically to an open wireless signal/network you can't be fined/prosecuted for, for example, driving up to a house with an open wireless and connecting to that network.
It's a grey area of the law, and could possibly be clarified in the future.